Today we’d like to introduce you to John Knicely.
Hi John, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I work with businesses that have some type of change to their story, like new markets, new products, M&A. They realize crucial that changing story is told effectively to investors and key stakeholders in the marketplace and inside the business. That’s Story on Purpose, my business I started in 2019/2020. We use authentic storytelling to generate business, drive culture, and preserve legacy.
And now I’ll share how I got here. I spent my formative years as a toddler in St. Louis while my dad, also John Knicely, was a sports anchor for KTVI Channel 2. We moved to Omaha where I primarily grew up. I lived 3 blocks from my entrepreneurial grandfather who owned an HVAC/Plumbing business as well as other business ventures. That planted an early seed of being a business owner.
After graduating from Baylor University, however, I followed my dad’s footsteps into broadcast journalism in 2003. I worked my way up from WPSD in Paducah, KY to WCCB in Charlotte, NC to KTVT CBS 11 in Dallas to KMOV News 4 in St. Louis. I married a St. Louis girl and we then moved in 2012 to Seattle to become morning anchor for KIRO7 News.
For a long time I was looking for my exit from the TV News world, where viewership was declining, pay was coming down, and quality of journalism was getting squeezed.
When I re-signed with KIRO7 in 2016, I told myself it would be my last TV contract. But I couldn’t tell you what I wanted to do next. I could only tell people what I didn’t want to do. I was getting together with a wide variety of business people in my network to explore this topic.
A fellow Baylor alum who worked for Microsoft finally asked me, “John, what do you like to do about your job?” I told him storytelling! I didn’t care about being on local billboards or any sort of pseudo-fame. He said “Oh, we have a storytelling team at Microsoft.” It’s led by Chief Storyteller Steve Clayton and is independent of marketing, PR, communications, and sales.
He and another Microsoft contact helped line up a meeting with Steve, who was gracious to get together and share the value of authentic business storytelling. I watched his Ted Talk and studied everything I could find of his online.
Then, a friend who’s an entrepreneur said, “John, you could work for a giant company that has a storytelling team or you could do this as an entrepreneur because most companies don’t have a storytelling team.”
That re-lit the entrepreneurial spark that I got from my grandfather. And I couldn’t put it out.
My LLC officially formed on February 14th, 2020. Perfect timing! I had a new client project lined up in NYC in March of 2020, which of course got shut down by the pandemic. My wife got a great job with Boeing, which brought us back to St. Louis.
I was very unsure about moving back to St. Louis in the middle of the pandemic with zero business network. I had some great contacts in TV and communications, but not the business community. One Seattle mentor connected me to Ryan Bretch in St. Louis. He connected me to Jennifer Bardot and Marianne Biangardi, two super connectors in the St. Louis business scene.
And I can trace nearly every relationship back to those intros. The St. Louis business community, particularly the Association for Corporate Growth, embraced me. I met my first major client, Cosmos Corporation, through ACG in October 2020. And my business started to grow.
It’s been a roller coaster with a lot of lessons learned the hard way. No special rocket ship entrepreneurial growth curve here.
But I’ve had many business mentors and selfless business leaders help guide me and Story on Purpose. I’m happy to say that 2025 is already a record year, more than doubling our revenue from 2024. I’m beyond grateful for the authentic, selfless business leaders who’ve helped me and those whom we now get to serve.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has not been a smooth road at all. Starting the business 2 weeks before a global pandemic presented a few challenges. Moving to a city where I had zero business network in July of 2020 was a challenge.
One of the basic challenges was getting really clear on the types of businesses that we could help and what would trigger them to value my business. Yes, that’s business 101, but I was learning it in real time.
I like to say, we’ve been building the plane as we fly.
My first two “sure-thing” business deals didn’t happen. The first was because of an unforeseen merger. The CEO I’d been working with didn’t know it, but her board approved the business getting acquired. That acquiring company didn’t need my services and the CEO was soon thereafter out of a job. The second “sure-thing” deal didn’t happen because I simply got beaten by a competitor with a better, more clear offer.
Both stung. But I’m one to lean into challenges and learn from them. It helped push me to the M&A space where we now often work.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Growth minded business work with Story on Purpose when they are dealing with change; new markets, new products reshaping their story, M&A, succession. We harness our journalistic roots to uncover and bring clarity to the unique value of those businesses. This involves us doing interviews with ideal customers and team members. Those insights often have transformational shifts in operations, marketing, and sales.
I’m most proud of the fact we only use authentic stories. We’re not trying to put lipstick on a pig or use fear/shame based tactics that some brands use.
We are brought in by a business owner or executive and then work hand in hand with marketing directors, digital marketing companies, and sales teams.
What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
The most important lesson I’ve learned is resiliency and persistence, to not get too high in the good business moments and not get too low in the tough ones.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.storyonpurpose.com/
- Instagram: @jrknicely
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-knicely/
